


No Good

by CinicalPanda



Category: gen:LOCK (Web Series)
Genre: Boners, Canon-Typical Violence, Grinding, Kissing, M/M, Making Out, Nemesis said Fuck Gender, Nonbinary Nemesis, Redemption, Rough Kissing, because i was completely wrong about nemesis, edited to better fit canon, im blaming this on mason and fleet specifically, yeah im going there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-10-31 22:02:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17857769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CinicalPanda/pseuds/CinicalPanda
Summary: The pilot opened his eyes.At this point, not a lot of things managed to surprise him.But seeing a glitched-out version of himself heavily breathing while shaking?Yeah, he was definitely surprised.





	No Good

The battle had turned into absolute chaos, Chase could tell you that much.

He could see Cammie sliding in and out of groups of enemies, haphazardly shooting all around her then diving back out of range. Yasamin flying around the air at high speeds, taking down as many Union drones as she possibly could. Even if he couldn’t see Valentina, the huge Union mechs falling one by one due to shots coming out of nowhere indicated that she wasn’t having as much trouble as the others. And Kazu, apparently completely unbothered by the situation was throwing tanks around like they were playthings, his thick armor letting him shrug off any bullets that managed to come in contact with his rampaging form.

But even with their best effort, the Union was still _somehow_ managing to push forward.

- _And I get stuck with the worst part_ \- Chase thinks to himself, barely managing to dodge out of the way of a sharp set of claws.

The Union Holon, the 'Real Chase', accurately codenamed _Nemesis_.

Or Headsnatcher if you pay attention to Cammie’s attempt at using humor to cope.

A thick cloud of nanotech swarmed out of Nemesis’ back, completely covering the empty area of their battle, blocking Chase’s path, leaving him alone with the _thing_ created to get rid of them.

Chase promptly began firing his rifle and dived out of the way of Nemesis’ attempt at a grapple, rolling across the barren ground and landing a few shots on its back. One of them hit between its second set of arms and it seemed to be particularly painful, seeing how it made Nemesis let out a garbled, glitched screech.

Its face sharply turned to look at Chase to look at him directly in his Holon’s mechanical eyes, and its body followed, its twitching calming down now that it had a purpose as it charged at Chase on all fours.

- _Fuck_ -

With a scream, Nemesis sprinted towards Chase, and before he could react, the nanotech gripped Chase's ankles, so all he could do to defend himself was wildly fire towards the technological nightmare.

“Ch… ase- can y… hear …e?!” Miranda’s panicked voice crackled through his comms.

- _Is the nanotech cutting my communication?! Guys! Are you there can you hear me?!_ \- Chase screamed through the team’s ‘telepathy’.

But there was no response.

By the time he looked back, it was too late.

One of Nemesis’ arms swatted his rifle off his hands, and when Chase went for the old reliable punch to the throat, Nemesis caught it by the wrist, then it followed this move by grabbing Chase’s other wrist, then loosened the nanotech gripping his ankles and slammed down the Holon to the ground.

“ **Copy. Kill t-t-the copy** ”

Nemesis used its third arm to grip Chase by the throat and stopped his flailing by straddling his lap with its entirely too large legs.

- _Whoa, I should_ not _be finding this exciting_ \- Chase thought to himself. - _Wait now's not the time to be thinking about something like that!-_

Finally, Nemesis used its last remaining arm to tear through Chase’s chassis, revealing his Ciberbrain, his weak point, the Union Monster began violently twitching at the sight of it, and no matter how hard Chase struggled, the other mech barely moved.

- _NO! I can't... let it ends like this!_ -

Nemesis brought down its claw towards the Ciberbrain, towards his heart. And the moment it made contact with it.

The world went black.

Chase thought he died - _again_ \- until he heard the sound of something - _someone_ -shaking and breathing harshly in front of him.

The pilot opened his eyes.

At this point, not a lot of things managed to surprise him.

But seeing a glitched-out version of himself heavily breathing while shaking?

Yeah, he was definitely surprised.

“Whoa, hey are you… okay?” he said, still confused about what the _hell_ was happening.

His own face snapped towards him, in a way he could recognize anywhere, and the bright red eyes replacing his brown confirmed it.

“… _Nemesis_?”

“ **Is that what you p-people c-c-call me?** ” Nemesis malfunctioning voice responded.

“Well…” – _This is such a stupid idea, if Colonel Marin were to know what I’m about to do she would kill me herself before I could even try_ \- “What would you _like_ to be called?”

“Why- **what** …?” Nemesis sounded legitimately confused, its glitched voice becoming clear for a second.

“Well, you clearly don’t like the name ‘Nemesis’, although if you say Julian Chase, I may have to go against that idea” Chase smiled at it- _no_ \- him? Them? Attempting to break the ice with a terrible joke, in true Julian Chase.

“ **I… I do not know, I... know that you-I'm-you're the real...** " Nemesis' voice seemed to get worse with it's confusion at the question.

“Wait, are you saying that you’re…?” – _What, was Nemesis the fake one all along or something? If so, I’ll have to have another talk with Dr. Weller_ \- Now _Chase_ was the confused one. – _Did they lie to me again?_ -

“ **Ha-ha I know I’m supposed to-to b-be Julian C-Chase. B-b-but-** ” Nemesis looked down, “ **Would J-Julian Chase v-v-violently rip a t-t-teenagers head o-off?** **M-maybe Juli-Julian Ch-Chase-ME-I… maybe he really d-d-did die in that cr-crash”** Their voice was getting more and more unstable with each word they forced out “ **Just-just like m-e, a badly m-made… _copy_ , and just l-l-like you… a c- _copy_** ” they curled up even tighter, the shaking coming back full force as the technological stutter in their voice increases.

Each word hit Chase like a freight train, words _he himself_ constantly thought about since waking up, and doubts that haunted him since Weller told him the truth.

Chase was starting to feel pity for Nemesis, which he’d ever thought he would do, after everything it’s done. Chase had been angry at them before, calling _him_ a copy, attacking Cammie and _scarring_ her on her _first_ official mission, attacking the Anvil, scaring him half to death, making him think all of his friends were lost in that nanotechnological hell, forcing him to _abandon_ them. All of the atrocities it committed for _the Union’s sake_.

Now he's starting to realize that Nemesis was never really the one at fault, at least not fully.

He realized that they were just another victim of the Union, a puppet, just like Sinclair probably was.

A long lost Julian Chase pushed to the brink of insanity – _maybe even beyond that_ \- using his mental state to their advantage and twisting him into a different person altogether, to the point of even Nemesis themselves realizing only fragments of the original Chase remained.

He looked around the room as Nemesis fell silent, and he quickly recognized his side of the room as his Holon’s mindscape, but when he saw Nemesis’s side his eyes started to hurt from the strain. Screens displaying memories flashed on an unstable dark purple dataspace, the edges of the platform were frayed, and any screens in display flickered in and out of existence.

But, he noticed that most of the memories didn’t match, he saw his last kiss with Miranda before New York, him piloting a _Union_ mech, sacrificing himself to stop _the_ _Polity_ , waking up to see someone that was obviously not Dr. Weller. Barely any mention of Migas, or Leon.

He also saw Chase, his original Holon, getting dragged into a Spider Tank, but the memory was so fuzzy and broken, it was probably one of the few original and untampered memories, mostly likely deleted then recovered by Nemesis itself.

- _They turned my ( **Chase’s?** ) memories into their propaganda? Just to get Nemesis to work for them?_\- Now he’s straight up _furious_ at the Union, if he somehow wasn’t before – _I knew they’d go to ridiculous lengths to win this war but this is just…evil and twisted_ -

When he looked back at Nemesis, he was surprised to see them more relaxed, looking intently at Chase with a very unreadable face, they were laying back more, legs crossed, arms behind them.

“Is there something wrong?”

Nemesis seemed to snap out of it, going back to their closed off position.

“ **I don’t know** what to **do** now,” They said, their voice slowly clearing up.

“What do you mean?”

“…at first, the only reason I fought was because I thought if I helped the Union, they would let me go, **end my 'life-long service' to them**. **To let me be with… Miranda** , who I now notice **I never… really knew out of- what the U-u-u-Union let me remember of- he-her** , then after seeing **you** , I was sure that getting rid of you would _somehow_ fill in the gaps, **get everything to finally make sense** … but now, **I just want it to be over** ”. Nemesis said, their voice slowly clearing, letting Chase’s own voice, cynical and frustrated, shine through.

“Well, it doesn’t _have_ to end like this” Chase said, moving closer to Nemesis, sitting down on his side of the dataspace. “You said you don’t know who you are? Then please, let me, _and the others,_ help you, I'm sure they'll understand when they hear your side of the story” - _Well I can't guarantee Valentina' and Yaz' trust but, I'm sure I can convince them after a while_ \- Chase thought, then opened his arms, gesturing Nemesis to come closer.

Nemesis slowly relaxed, slowly scooting closer to Chase's side; so to show his trust, Chase did the same. They met in the middle, Chase with his arms still open and welcoming.

Nemesis reached towards him with one hand and placed it on the side of Chase’s neck.

Chase was ready for a lot of things, the entire thing being a trick and getting strangled to death, Nemesis running away, Nemesis not doing anything.

But Nemesis roughly bringing their head closer and, as violently as usual, smashing their lips onto Chase’s was _not_ one of them.

And he was certainly not expecting to like it as much as he did.

They melted into each other almost instantly; Nemesis quickly climbing onto Chase’s lap and straddling him as Julian firmly wrapped his arms around their waist. They promptly began grinding against each other, both immediately relishing in the freedom of the dataspace, using their newfound ability to feel, the ability to really _exist_ outside their mechanical bodies overwhelming any common sense they both previously had. Nemesis wrapped their arms around Julian’s neck as Chase tried to bring them impossibly closer to his body. Their bodies felt like they were on fire as they felt things both of them having felt in a long time, not since Chase woke up, not since Nemesis lost their- _his?-_ body. And for once Chase liked this seemingly new ability of the nanotech cutting his communication, the privacy given by them was a blessing.

He almost thought about how worried the others might be after not hearing from him in what must have been 10 minutes of radio silence.

However, Nemesis all around him proved to be entirely too distracting, not letting Chase think, only _feel._

Chase felt all the pent up frustration oozing out of him throughout whatever was happening right now, the four years without the inability to feel outside of his Holon, and even then, it was so _limited_. Finally returning to the Vanguard, to his friends, _to Miranda_. Only to find her so distant. The teams initial failure at working together, Colonel Marin’s increasing frustration, Nemesis- _no, the Union_ -doing _that_ to Cammie in her _first mission_ , Weller lying to him for those four years about who he was, changing his memories to perpetuate the lie - _just like what the Union did to Nemesis_ -.

Anger towards the Union for so many things, for his 'death', for what they do to whoever falls out of ‘line’, for how they took his family from him, for how they created Nemesis.

And Nemesis was feeling the same, years of feeling like nothing and everything at the same time, the Union screaming at them how to do their mission. Meeting Chase, every part of him- _no, them?_ \- hating him, calling him an impostor, _a fake_. The realization of Nemesis themselves being a _fake_ , discreetly investigating everything about who Chase was, in a desperate attempt to find out that no, Nemesis was wrong, he’s- _they’re?_ – the real one, not him. But with every bit of information getting closer to realizing that everything they thought they knew was never real. The realization that the Union _lied_ to them, the hopelessness of the bitter truth settling in, the desire to fight for the sole purpose of ending it all.

And now, the light of hope that came from Chase’s offer, from Chase himself, and how they couldn’t resist it. How both of them couldn't resist each other.

Nemesis gripped the front of Chase’s suit, easily ripping it open as one would to a fragile button up shirt. The holographic thread giving way to show Chase’s muscular body and Nemesis wasted no time to put their hands all over it.

Chase felt sparks as Nemesis hands frantically travelled across his chest, the feeling of someone else's hands on his body almost forgotten after years of being stuck in that _fucking tank_. So Chase’s hands travelled down from Nemesis’ waist to their ass and pressed them tighter to him while holding it in a firm grip to return the favor, and relishing in the feeling of Nemesis quivering against him.

Then Chase felt Nemesis shift against him and not in the usual sense one would expect from this sort of situation, but quite literally felt Nemesis change.

As Nemesis changed focus from Chase’s mouth to his neck- _fuck, I forgot how amazing that felt_ \- he managed to catch a glimpse of their usually combed hairstyle change to a wilder, freer look, hair growing and falling on one side of their head. The red light on their undercut changed to bright white, then faded to a dark purple, and then changed altogether from a straight line to a spiked, almost lightning-like pattern, colored just like their signature nanotech.

Nemesis body changed too, Chase felt Nemesis get slightly taller, and their shoulders getting a bit broader, legs and thighs thicker.

- _I see you really liked your Holon_ \- Thought Chase.

When Nemesis finally pulled back, breathless, Chase’s heart leapt to his throat.

Their hair was definitely longer, not by a lot, but it was noticeable, messier, mostly thrown forward and to the side (but that is more likely cause by what just happened). One of the eyes retained the bright red color, but the other was a dark purple. Now that he finally gets good look at them, their body has clearly changed.

Not by a lot, the similarities between them and Chase were clearly still there, but compared to Chase’s more ‘Dorito-like’ body ( _blame Cammie and Valentina for that description_ ), Nemesis’ clearly took some inspiration from their mechanical body, smaller waist, thick thighs, broad shoulders and all. Their skin regained it's color too, going from the muted gray to Chase's original dark skin, making Nemesis look truly alive.

“ **What** are you looking at?” Nemesis said, in a voice still so obviously _Chase_ , but with a manner of speaking and tone so different, so blunt and direct, no smooth-talking like Chase’s usual demeanor. And mostly free of the glitching.

“Nothing, just noticing how wrong I was about you”

Both of them, so similar but so different, enjoyed the moment of peace, feeling as if a huge weight had been taken off their shoulders. Their breathing starting to relax after that exciting make-out session, from letting all their frustrations go and relishing in the feeling of... feeling.

Nemesis took a deep breath, somehow managing to compose themselves, then stood up and walked to their side of the dataspace, with a bit of a limp, clearly bothered by something in their… nether regions, and pulled up a screen, then smiled for the first time since Chase met the real Nemesis

“It seems I somehow managed to cut myself off **the Union’s** communication channel during all… **_that_** , so that's... good” They said, stuttering on the 'that', clearly still enjoying what they just went through, then started to open various terminals.

A second pair of mechanical arms seemingly materializing out of nowhere and expediting the process, starting to find a way to cut themselves off the Union’s network entirely, or at least deactivate the tracking.

"Are you... defecting?" Even though he knows he offered to help, Chase was still surprised that Nemesis was actually accepting it.

"Why not? You know I don't want to be there, you **know I hate them** for **lying** to me, there is nothing waiting for me there other than **a shut-down and deletion for 'malfunctioning'** " Nemesis explained, as if being erased like that was something anyone would expect.

Though coming from the Union, Chase wasn't really surprised.

Finally catching his breath, Chase awkwardly walked to his side of the dataspace, his body suit feeling tighter in a... certain area. And checked his Holon's status too, and when he activated his visual feed, he was relieved to see Kazu punching a whole through a weakened nano-wall. Then remembered how he got into this situation in the first place.

“ _Shit_! I completely forgot about the fight!” Chase panicked, but seeing the others rush in after Kazu made him relax, which told him how the battle was either over or they somehow managed to turn the tide enough for the gen:LOCK team to go rescue Chase, although he already dreaded the absolute hell he’ll have to endure for making them worry so much.

Both Chase and Nemesis reactivated their Holons, the connection between them being split was disheartening, but Chase knew whatever new connection they had now was more important.

And when Chase next opened his eyes, it was to Kazu getting ready to make Nemesis taste a 5-ton metal fist sandwich.

**Author's Note:**

> Julian Chase, disaster bi and distinguished robot/clonefucker everybody.  
> This fic is based on the Battle Tapes song of the same name.  
> I blame Mason for enabling me.


End file.
